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A kiss is STILL a kiss
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Jun 16, 2008
26
of
29 people found this review helpful
Humphrey Bogart is an American in West Morocco at the time that it was a French possession and most of France was under German occupation, in Michael Curtiz' WWII classic, Casablanca. During the war, the title city was a way station for mercenaries, spies, refugees, and profiteers like the Bogart character, who owns a nocturnal hot spot in town. The nightclub foreshadows the space canteen in Star Wars, peopled with the strange and the estranged, including Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, who turns up as an exile from his romantic past and continental upheaval.
Highly stylish and atmospheric, the movie has had such an indelible influence on popular culture that it is a challenge to assess it on its own merits and difficult to speak about it without repeating the overstated platitude that it is a bona fide screen legend. Everything from Bogart's persona, the foggy finale, and the cult devotion to its theme song (featured in Clint Eastwood's In The Line Of Fire) and catchy one-liners ("Play it again, Sam," isn't even in the film, but Claude Rains' line, "Round up the usual suspects" provided the title for another movie) will leave viewers thinking, 'So, that's where that's from...' However, everything that has been hyped and over-killed in the movie's wake is fresh again when you see the film. Notably, the engrossing story and three-dimensional characters transcend the superlatives that you may have heard about the movie in their power to compel you.
Casablanca starts out by casting a net of political intrigue and colorful characters as Peter Lorre delivers two coveted Rights of Transit to Humphrey Bogart, only to die that night, without ever recovering the documents. Soon afterwards, a resistance leader and his wife (Paul Henreid, and Bergman) arrive in much need of travel documents, while Nazi officials try to make the necessary diplomatic arrangements to detain them. In the middle of the intrigue is a comical, but corrupt Moroccan official, played by Claude Rains, who sides with the Nazis mostly because of self-interest. The dilemma that is skillfully woven is the perfect ethical test for the normally opportunistic Bogart and, to a lesser extent, for the Claude Rains character. Will Bogart stick to his cool indifference to the winds that ravage his world ("I stick my neck out for nobody"), and will he put his feelings aside?
Casablanca is distinguished by memorable writing delivered with inimitable style by the actors, especially Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine," he spews with rapid-fire confidence, when his old flame returns. When he contemplates their plight, he waxes philosophical, but with a street-wise chic: "The troubles of three people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy, mixed up world." The movie mixes these elements with wonderful moments of comic relief. My favorite gag was when the Nazi officials force Claude Rains to shut down Bogart's Café Americain. With mock indignation, he feigns great shock at learning that there is gambling going on in the place -- just before collecting his winnings.
Through it all, there is also a wonderful cinematic economy that hones in on what is essential, and dispenses with everything else. In a flashback sequence to Bogart and Bergman's past romance in Paris, she breaks off the affair abruptly. The director could have shown us an emotional, weeping sequence. Instead, we see Bogart reading her note to him in the rain, and the water washes over the note, smudging its letters, and presenting a palpable metaphor for her teary goodbye. The timeless appeal of Casablanca bears out the promise of the lyrics of its musical theme: "The world will always welcome lovers as time goes by."
(Carlos Colorado) |
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